See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/231582200

The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of

University Students

Article · June 2011

CITATIONS READS

11 79,902

2 authors, including:

Zarina Akhtar
International Islamic University, Islamabad
18 PUBLICATIONS   112 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

teachers conceptual awareness and practices towards safeguarding children View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Zarina Akhtar on 01 June 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 LANGUAGE IN INDIA
Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow
Volume 11 : 6 June 2011
ISSN 1930-2940
Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on

the Academic Achievement of University Students
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
_____________________________________________________________
Abstract

The study aims at exploring the effect of peer and parent pressure on the academic
achievement of university students. The male and female university students of Masters
class were the population of the study. 156 students were selected by using cluster
sampling technique from three departments of university (Business Administration,
Computer Science and Economics) as a sample for the study. An opinionnaire was used
to elicit the opinions of the students regarding peer and parent pressure. The findings of
the study were the parent pressure effect positively and peer pressure effects negatively
the academic achievement of students and especially female university students. No
effect of peer and parent pressure was found on the achievement male students. The
parent’s pressure has positive effect on the academic achievement of Business
Administration students.

Key words: Peer Pressure, Parent Pressure, Academic achievement, University Students

1. Introduction

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 254

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
 People cannot live alone in society. The need of social belongingness attached
them and they feel affiliation for others. This need for affiliation is based on genetics or
experience. It constitutes a relatively stable trait or behavior. Basically people need social
contacts that suit them. Some times they need parent’s help, love, care and guidance and
some time they need friend’s intimacy, affection and love. Generally speaking
adolescents find their friendships to be enjoyable: together they relax, joke, watch
television, and participate in sports activities and talk.

The person’s first contact is with parents and then with friends. Parent attachment
is stronger during infancy and childhood whereas friend’s attachment is strong during
adolescence. Attachment level varies with the ages and stages of life. According to Dacey
& Kenny (1997) “adolescents who feel accepted by their peer group and their parents are
likely to feel good about themselves”. The peer acceptance and attachment is as
important as the parent attachment. Reisman (1985) concluded after reviewing different
research studies that “the adolescents who have poor peer relationships are more likely to
have adjustment difficulties in adulthood”. This attachment influence their feelings,
thinking, decisions and living styles. The strong attachment has strong influence on
personality. When this influence effects the decisions or liking, disliking of a person and
a person feel forced to left their own mottos, feelings and fulfill the friends or parents
expectation, this is called pressure. Weiten and Lloyd (2004) said that the “pressure
involves expectations or demands that one behave in a certain way”. They divide pressure
in two types the pressure to perform and the pressure to confirm. The power of pressure
is violating personal standards in order to be liked by other members of cohesive group
(Weiten and Lloyd, 2004). No one can deny this power of pressure.

The adolescents learn about themselves from friends may differs from what they
learn about themselves from parents. The skills, values and behavior rewarded by one
group may be different from those rewarded by the other. Parent’s has certain value
system and norms they want from their children to follow them and fulfill their
expectations this is parent pressure. Whereas, the peer pressure is defined as the influence
exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitude, values,
behavior in order to confirm the group norms (Elliot, 2001). The pressure in itself is
neither positive nor negative. It is positive if it encourages positive attitude, healthy
values, respect and hard work. It is negative if it encourages negative attitude. The
positive pressure strengthens the potential of a person and the negative pressure reduces
the person’s strength. The positive pressure leads towards the success whereas the
negative leads to the failure in academic life.

 Peer pressure and its effect on achievement

The children at adolescent age share their problems and feeling with their friends.
The nature of relationship with friends depends on the parenting style. The strong
relationship with parents may result in the weak relationship with friends and vice versa.
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 255
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
The findings of the research of Carvallo & Gabriel (2006) showed that “even the people
who claim to have little or no need for affiliation do have affiliation need”. One or the
other way people need friends for social acceptance. The other reason may be the people
are curious they need to know the people around them, so they are socially influenced.

The social influence can occur at three levels. According to Atwater and Duffy
(1999) at the first level one can publicly go with others but refuse to change his private
beliefs at this stage little peer pressure can affect. The second level of social influence is
when people behave like others because they are attracted with them. They change their
style and adopt the group or person has and when they apart one returned on their own.
At this stage one has no personal intention; he/she will do the same as the others in group
will do. They can return to their original beliefs when the peer pressure removed. The
third level is where someone has truly influenced and changes his own forever. This is
the crucial stage one can build or destroy his future because of this influence or pressure.

The individuals are influenced by their families and by their friends. Boujlaleb
(2006) said that “peers have a more powerful influence on adolescents as compared to
families”. In another research Haynie (2002) find out that “adolescents get their self-
esteem from the group they are belonging to and they cannot imagine themselves outside
the gathering”. Without a group or friends, one has low self-esteem and they are
powerless. They see friends or peers as vital component in their life without which they
cannot live. Now the one go where the peers go if they are good in studies have healthy
competition everyone in the group will be academically good and a high achiever but if
they are indulged in negative activities then it’s difficult for one to prevent him not to
involve in it. So they will be low achievers.

Many research studies were conducted to investigate the peer pressure and its
relationship with the academic and social factors. One of them was Taylor and Wong
(1996). The study highlighted that gender difference exists in the perception of peer.
Study further indicated that the adolescents who have a high level of conformity to
unconventional peer behavior tend to have lower GPA then those who have lower level
of conformity. The boys’ grades are more strongly affected by peer orientation than girls.
The male peers who exhibits negative behavior has lower utility for school.

Carman and Zhang (2008) also conducted a research on “classroom peer effects
and academic achievement”. The sample of the research was 7th to 9th grade students of
China. During the study the peer and teachers remain the same for three years. The peer
effect on the achievement of Mathematics, China and English was observed. The linear in
mean model was used to control the individual and teacher interaction by test fixed
effects. The findings were the significant positive peer effect on the mathematics test
score and positive but not significant effect on Chinese test score and no effect on
English test score.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 256

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
 Bellemare, Lepage and Shearer (2009) conducted a study to present the
stimulating conditions at work place. The main variables were peer pressure, incentives
and gender. The major finding was that very high and very low level of peer pressure can
significantly decrease the productivity of workers.

Tope (2011) investigated the influence of peer group on adolescent’s academic

performance. The sample of the study was 150 randomly selected students from four
secondary schools. The findings were the peer group could either positively or negatively
influence the academic performance in school. Tope recommended that parents and
teachers may provide adequate guidance to adolescents to help them understand how the
friends can positively or negatively influence their academic performance.

 Parent Pressure and its effect on achievement

Parents brought up their children. They feel responsible to develop their self-
concept to help them in leading successful life. To reach the adolescent age one has
developed self-concept. Atwater & Duffy, (1999) describes the self-concept as “it is the
overall image or awareness one has of him/her self. It includes all those perceptions of
“I” and “me” together with the feelings, beliefs and values associated with them”. Self-
concept provide personal identity or sense of who am I. It has its roots in family value
system. The children know their parents value system and act accordingly during early
adolescence as they are dependent on them. It means that adolescents are mostly
influenced by their parents and environment at home.

Parent-children relationship depends on the time and care given to the children by
the mother and father and their own relationship. Baumrind, (1989) described four
parenting styles. The authoritative parenting style is the most common and considered
most successful style. It is democratic parenting style. These parents’ holds high
expectations, provide explanations for rules, and create an environment of warmth and
caring for their children. Baumrind (1991a) suggests that authoritative parents “monitor
and impart clear standards for their children’s conduct. They are not intrusive and
restrictive. Their disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. They want
their children to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as
cooperative”. The permissive style parents decide to give lots of freedom and hope to
their children they will do what is best. According to Baumrind (1991b) the permissive
parents “are more responsive than they are demanding. They are nontraditional and
lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self regulation, and avoid
confrontation”.

The authoritarian parents seek to control their children through rules they use
reward and punishment to make their children follow the rules. They gave orders and are
not likely to explain them. The uninvolved parents have few demands, low
responsiveness and little communication with their children. Although they fulfill the
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 257
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
child’s basic needs, but they are generally detached from their children’s life. The
children’s of these parents have low self-esteem, less confidence, lack of self control and
less competent. The parent pressure is directly linked with the parenting style. The parent
pressure can be felt from any of the parenting style. Some parenting style cause low
parent pressure or no pressure like uninvolved parenting style, and some create high
pressure like authoritative and authoritarian parenting style. The authoritative and
authoritarian both parenting style parents involve in the activities of the children, both
cause parent pressure the authoritative parent’s child want to fulfill their expectations
keep them happy and satisfied and the authoritarian parent’s child feel forced to fulfill
parents expectations to avoid punishment. The parenting style effects the academic
achievement of their children and they perform accordingly. High parent pressure may
result high achievement and low parent pressure may be the reason of low achievement.

Many research studies showed the importance of parents’ involvement or parent

pressure and its effect on academic achievement of adolescents. One of them is of
Desforges and Abouchaar, (2003). They defined parent’s involvement by many forms,
like parenting style, stable and secure environment, intellectual stimulation, parent child
discussion, contact with school, participation in school events and activities. The findings
consistently showed that parent involvement has strong positive influence on the child
level of attainment: the more the parental involvement the higher the attainment. They
concluded that at home parenting has a significant positive effect on children’s
achievement and adjustment. It was further stressed that parental involvement has greater
positive effect on achievement of students as compared to the quality of school.

Opdenakker and Damme (2005) conducted a research study “enhancing effort and
achievement: the importance of parent involvement and home school partnerships”. The
findings indicated that the parents’ attitude (parent pressure) and activities like coaching
and support to the formal education of their child has a unique and positive effect on
effort and achievement of children; although it is weakly related to the socio-economic
status of parents.

Moula (2010) tried to investigate “the relationship between academic

achievement motivation and home environment among standard eight pupils”. He define
the home environment by five factors i.e. parental encouragement, parents’ occupation,
parents’ education, Family size, Learning facilities at home. The findings showed that
four factors (parents’ occupation, parents’ education, family size and learning facilities)
significantly effects the achievement motivation and parental encouragement was the
only factor which showed low correlation with academic motivation.

Keeping in view the above discussion this study aimed at investigating the effect
of peer and parent pressure on academic achievement of university students. Peer and
parent pressure was identified as independent variables and academic achievement as
dependent variable.
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 258
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
2. Objectives of the Study

The study aimed to:

i. explore the relationship between the academic achievement and peer pressure of
university students.
ii. investigate the relationship between the academic achievement and the parent
pressure of university students.
iii. study gender-wise comparison of relationship between peer and parent pressure
and academic achievement of university students.
iv. study department-wise comparison of relationship between peer and parent
pressure and academic achievement of university students.

3. Methodology

The study was descriptive in nature. A survey was conducted.

 Population

The population of the study was postgraduate male and female students of
Business Administration, Economics and Computer Science departments of International
Islamic University, Islamabad.

 Sample

The sample of the study was 156 students enrolled in semester Fall 2010 in
M.A./M.Sc class of Business Administration, Economics and Computer Science
departments. Cluster sampling technique was used to select the sample. All the students
who were present on data collection day were selected as the sample of the study. The
department-wise break down of sample is presented in following table.

Table.1 Break-down of the sample of study

Serial no Department Total

1 Computer Science 38
2 Economics 35
3 Business Administration 83

 Instrument

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 259

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
 The instrument was a three point rating scale developed by the researcher. It
consists of 29 statements. Fifteen statements were about the peer pressure and fourteen
statements were regarding the parent pressure. The statements were rated on three
indicators; always true, seldom true and never true. The response of students was scored:
peer pressure and parent pressure score was obtained. The over-all marks of the students
in their graduate examination were used as their academic achievement.

 Validity and reliability of the instrument

The instrument was discussed with the experts of different departments working
at different institutions in different capacities. In the light of their opinion and suggestions
the instrument was finalized. The developed instrument was then administered to the
students of master’s class studying in same university but in different department.
Cronbach alpha was used to calculate the reliability of the developed instrument. The
calculated value of reliability was found .65 which is the moderate value of the “r”.

4. Data Analysis

Pearson correlation was used to study the effect of peer and parent pressure on
academic achievement. The data was analyzed and interpreted in following tables.

Table.2 The relationship between academic achievement and peer and parent
pressure

Groups N Pearson Correlation(r) p value Significance

Peer Pressure 156 -0.095 0.239 ns

Parent Pressure 156 0.269* 0.001 s
*
Significant at α=.05

Table.2 shows that the parent pressure and academic achievement has significant
positive relationship, whereas the peer pressure and academic achievement has not
significant negative relationship.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 260

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
Table.3 Gender-wise relationship between academic achievement and peer and
parent pressure

Male student’s Female student’s

Groups N r p N r p

Peer Pressure 76 0.034 0.768 80 -0.252* 0.024

Parent Pressure 76 0.097 0.405 80 0.264* 0.018

N = Total number of respondents r = Pearson’s correlation

*
Significant at α=.05 p = level of significance

Table.3 highlighted that the academic achievement of female students has

significant negative correlation with peer pressure and significant positive correlation
with parent pressure. Whereas table further highlighted that the academic achievement of
male students showed no significant correlation with the peer and parent pressure.

Table.4 Department-wise relationship between academic achievement and peer

and parent pressure
Peer Pressure Parent Pressure
Groups N
r p r p
Computer Science 38 -.039 .815 .164 .324
Economics 35 -.163 .351 .252 .145
*
Business Administration 83 -.031 .779 .241 .028
*
Significant at α=.05

Table.4 indicated the academic achievement of the students of Business

Administration department has significant positive correlation with parent pressure. The
academic achievement of the students of other departments showed positive correlation
with parent pressure which is not significant. Table further highlighted that the academic
achievement of the students of Computer Science, Economics and Business
Administration departments has negative correlation with peer pressure which is also not
significant.

5. Findings

The findings of the research study are as follows.

i. Parent pressure showed significant positive relationship with academic

achievement of university students.
ii. Peer pressure showed negative relationship with academic achievement of
university students.
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 261
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
 iii. Parent pressure showed significant positive relationship with academic
achievement of female university students whereas it has no relationship with
academic achievement of male university students.
iv. Peer pressure has significant negative relationship with academic achievement of
female students and no relationship with the academic achievement of male
university students.
v. Academic achievement of students from Business Administration Department
showed significant positive relationship with parent pressure and negative
relationship with peer pressure.
vi. Academic achievement of students from Computer Science Department and
Economics department showed positive relationship with parent pressure and
negative relationship with peer pressure.

6. Conclusion

i. Parent’s pressure effects academic achievement positively whereas peer pressure

effects academic achievement of university students negatively.
ii. Parent pressure has greater influence on female’s academic achievement as
compared to male students.
iii. The peer pressure negatively effect the academic achievement of female students
as compared to male students.
iv. The academic achievement of Business Administration students is positively
correlated with parent pressure as compared to the academic achievement of the
students of Computer Science and Economics Departments.

7. Discussion

Peer and Parent pressure are the strong variables which affect the total personality
of the student so as the academic achievement. The findings of the study showed that
parent pressure has significant positive effect on academic achievement. It means that if
parents are in contact with the studies of their children it can enhance their academic
performance, where as the findings further highlighted that the peer pressure has negative
effect on the academic achievement of the university students. Under the parent pressure
the students feel forced to attend the classes, to be punctual in their assignments,
presentations and project work, to fulfill the parent expectations.

The peer pressure demand to help their friends even at the cast of bunking classes,
going out with friends during the academic activities, completing the others assignments
and missing their own, rejecting the parent norm to confirm the affiliation with groups.

The female students are dependents either on parents or on peers. The findings of
the study indicated that the academic achievement of female student is high where there
is parent pressure and adverse where they have more peer pressure as compared to male
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 262
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
students. In Pakistani culture the parents are more protective for their female child as
compared to male it create dependency in females. So where the parent takes more care
of their female child they depend on them and where the parents don’t care for them they
are dependent on peers.

Study further highlighted that the parents are more concerned about the academic
achievement of students studying at Business Administration department as compared to
the students enrolled at Economics and Computer Science department. The reason may
be the high expenditure of this department. The spent more on the education of their
children enrolled at this department so they expect more and this cause parent pressure
and it effects positively the achievement of student.

The results of the study are consistent and aligned with the findings of already
conducted researches. The finding of the study that peer pressure effects negatively the
students achievement verify the result of research studies conducted by Bellemare,
Lepagie and Shearer (2009)and Tope (2011). The finding of the study that peer pressure
significantly effects the academic achievement of female students is against the findings
of the research of Taylor and Wong (1996). They concluded that peer pressure effects
negatively the academic achievement of male students. Study concluded that parent
pressure is the important variable which effects positively the academic achievement of
students and it is not related to the socio-economic status of the parents and quality of
school (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003, Opdenakker and Damme, 2005) and this finding
is opposite to the findings of the research of Moula (2010) which highlighted that the
parental encouragement showed low correlation with academic motivation. The reason
may be the parent demanded high achievement by pressurizing children and this might
create the anxiety and fear of failure, instead of providing effective motivation to do well
in their academic work. The parents need to realize that it is not the amount of
encouragement and pressure that matters but the way the encouragement is given matters.
It is recommended that parents need to be aware of the importance of their role in their
children academic achievement. They may intact with their children studies so that they
can provide the necessary facilities at home which help to understand how the peer
pressure is effecting their achievement.

===============================================================

References

Atwater, E. & Duffy, K. G. (1999). Psychology for living: Adjustment growth and
Behavior today. 6th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Baumrind, D. (1989). Parenting Style and adolescent development in J. Books-Gunn, R.

Lerner & A. C. Peterson (Edn.) The Encyclopedia of Adolescence. New York:
Garland.
Language in India www.languageinindia.com 263
11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
Baumrind, D. (1991a). Effective parenting during the early adolescent transition. In P. A.
Cowan & M. Hetherington (Edn.) Family Transition. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.

Baumrind, D. (1991b). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and

substance abuse. Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56-95.

Bellemare, C., Lepage, P. & Shearer, B. (2009). Peer pressure incentives and gender: An
experimental analysis of motivation in the work place. Bone: IZA Discussion paper
no 3948. Retrieved on Jan 2011 from www.jstore.com.

Boujlaleb, N & Owens. (2006). Adolescent and peer pressure applied independent
learning method. Al-Akhawayn University retrieved from wwww.jstore.com on Dec
2010.

Carman & Zhang. (2008). Classroom peer and academic achievement: Evidence from a
Chinese Middle School. Journal of Educational Psychology. Retrieved from
www.jstore.com.

Carvallo, M. & Gabriel, S. (2006). No man is an Island: The need to belong and
dismissing avoidant attachment style. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
(32), 697-709.

Dacey, J. & Kenny, M. (1997). Adolescent development. USA: McGraw-Hill Inc.

Desforges, C. & Abouchaar, A. (2003). The impact of parent involvement, parent support
and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature review.
Department of Education and Skill: Queen’s printer.

Elliot, A. J. & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2*2 achievement goal frame work. Journal of
personality and social psychology. Vol: 80, 501-519.

Haynie, D. (2002). The relative nature of peer delinquency. Journal of Quantitative

criminology. Vol: 2, 99-134.

Moula, J. M. (2010). A study of the relationship between academic achievement

motivation and have environment among standard eight pupils. Educational Research
and Review. Vol: 5(5), 213-217.

Opdenakker, M. & Damme, J. V. (2005). Enhancing effort and achievement: the

importance of parent involvement and home school partnerships. ERICE Document.
Retrieved from www.jstore.com on Jan 2011.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 264

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students
 Tope, O. (2011). The influence of peer group on adolescent’s academic performance: A
case study of some selected schools in Ogun State, Nigeria: Egobooster Books.

Taylor, E. D. & Wong, C. A. (1996). Gender differences in the impact of peer influences
and peer orientation on African American Adolescent’s school value and academic
achievement. Boston: Massachusetts.

Weiten, w. & Lloyd, A. (2004). Psychology applied to modern life, Adjustment the 21st
century. Singapore: Thomas Asia.

===============================================================
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D.
zarina.akhtar@iiu.edu.pk

Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.

phd_edu@hotmail.com

International Islamic University

H-10 Islamabad 44000
Pakistan

Language in India www.languageinindia.com 265

11 : 6 June 2011
Zarina Akhtar, Ph.D. and Shamsa Aziz, Ph.D.
The Effect of Peer and Parent Pressure on the Academic Achievement of University
Students

View publication stats